Meet Aairo | Artist, Musician, and Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Aairo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Aairo, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Risk is an essential part of my life. It has carried me through not only my artistry, but also my day to day life. As an artist, it takes courage to explore the unknown realm of creation. What’s even harder than creating is releasing one’s creations. The world will always have opinions on your art, whether positive or negative, but taking that risk regardless of the potential outcome can unveil life’s most beautiful intricacies. My best performances have been when I took risks while on stage. They don’t always work, but when they do, they take the performance up to a new level. It takes a certain level of courage and faith to look uncertainty it the eyes and push onward despite not knowing the outcome. Risk fuels me throughout my daily life.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My artistry is a reflection of my journey throughout life. I believe that art can inspire life, but life also inspires art. That is how I choose to go about my artistry. I try to stay open to learning all of the lessons life has presented me with. From those lessons, I use my music as a way to process what I learned. In business, people often do a PDR (Plan, Do, Review). For me writing songs and producing are how I take in and review everything I just learned in life. I call my songs my “personal little journal entries”. I can listen to a song and it takes me back to everything surrounding the time I wrote and recorded the song. Since my music journey, or maybe I’ll say self-expression journey, is about growth, that is what excites me most! I see myself further uncovering, discovering, and revealing different parts of me the further along I go into my career. I’m learning to leave behind negative self judgments and the opinions of others to allow myself to be more free. That was one thing I have always struggled with. That internal voice that tells says you are not good enough, you can’t do that, or you’re not talented enough, has always weighed down on me. I wasn’t a child prodigy, playing 7 instruments at the age of 5. I really started taking music seriously around the age of 16. In this day & age of social media, it is so easy to see other people’s journey and compare yourself with theirs. One big thing I’ve learned from that is that is so detrimental to your own craft, and almost disrespectful to your own unique essence. If you spend all of your life looking at what other people have, you will never see the true beauty of the gift you were given. Once you acknowledge this, if you spend a lifetime comparing yourself to others, you will tear yourself down. Creativity isn’t competitive, or at least it shouldn’t be, because its all unique to the individual. People should honor that. I hope that my music inspires people to tell the story of their own unique, beautiful life and its journey. Along the way, they may pick up bits and pieces of knowledge that could be applicable to their own life, and if so, I’m grateful that I could share something with someone to add value to their life. Everyone has their own story, and when you focus on your own journey, and walking down that path fearlessly, your life can be so beautiful and inspiring to others.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Im new to the city so I am still learning about the cool spots in town, but so far, I’ve found a couple! One of my favorite restaurants to eat at after a long day of work is Hippy Hibachi! I am a vegetarian and their vegan hibachi is delicious! As for events, I spend most of my time going around to different open mics and jam sessions in the city. Two I found out about recently that had a really nice vibe and cool people were @AllMyFriendsATL and @OACES weekly jam session (both on instagram). Besides that, I really just work (Boring, I know).

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The person who plays the biggest role in my creative endeavors is my mother. I am very grateful for everything she’s done for me. She laid the soil for me to turn my creative seeds into a bountiful garden, while also teaching me how to care for it. Growing up, my family wasn’t very musical. My mom sang, but that’s about it. We had an old guitar at our house that my aunt left over. 3 of the 6 strings on it were missing. One day, I was around the age of 10, I picked it up and stated humming while strumming the 3 strings. I hear my mom call my name, and I went downstairs and she says “hey, that sounds really good! You should keep that up”. I remember walking away from that conversation thinking “hmmm, maybe I should keep this up”. That conversation was just the beginning. From taking off from work to take me to all of my auditions, to helping me prepare for my shows. Even on those nights when I would stay up until 5am working on music, shaking all the walls in the house, my mother encouraged me to keep going in those times when I wanted to quit on myself. I look forward to the day when all of her support, and my hard-work pay off.

Website: https://link.snipfeed.co/aairo

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncleaairo/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/uncleaairo

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uncleaairo

Image Credits
Jenny Luu – Photographer Geraldo Malaval – Photographer Aaron Grace – Photographer Amena Sheikh – Graphic Design/Cover Art